Well, the days are getting shorter, the mornings are getting darker, and the weather, well... it's wet. It's officially fall in Vancouver. I've been making a lot of soups the last few weeks. It's an easy meal to throw in lots of different ingredients making a big batch that you can eat it all week is a huge time saver. If you read any of my posts last fall, you know I'm a little nutso for pumpkin... in fact, I may or may not have eaten a slice of pumpkin pie the size of my head last night for dinner...

Ok. I did.

Deciding that I should at least eat some vegetables for dinner tonight, I got my hands dirty, jumped outside my comfort zone, left the recipe books alone and experimented with some of my favourite ingredients. The end result? A vegan pumpkin, ginger, coconut curry soup.

1. chop your onions, garlic and ginger, and combine/grind your spices in a mortar and pestel (if you don't have one, you can just combine in a dish!)
2. melt the coconut oil, adding the onions, garlic and ginger until slightly soft. Add all your dry spices and continue to saute until soft
3. Add vegetable broth and canned pumpkin
4. Bring to a boil and let simmer for 25 minutes
5. Remove from heat and pour into Vitamix (or other highspeed blender) with cashews and blend until smooth
6. Pour back in pot and pour in coconut milk (because I also used some cashews, I only used half a cup but you can use more if you like!)
7. Serve, and inhale.

There you have it! It's rich, so you'll probably find you won't need a huge portion to feel full. I served mine alongside a big kale caesar salad. You'll be amazed at the rich and creamy texture of the soup, even though there's no dairy in it. I've been having a lot of fun experimenting with vegan dishes as I'm constantly impressed by the flavours we can get without the use of any animal protein.